Azumanga Game Series: Part One
by Teris24
Summary: The characters of Azumanga Daioh are pitted against each other in one on one fights to the death.
1. Fight 11

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any Azumanga Daioh characters.

**Note:** This has been sitting around on my computer for a long time now, but I never got around to posting it. Considering all of the other stories that I've started and have yet to finish, I really shouldn't be posting it now. Just a videogame-inspired experiement with more action and less plot. Nothing special.

**Warning:** There are going to be character deaths in this fiction. Actually, I'm pretty sure that all of them are going to die at some point. However, this is not a serious story so don't take it as such. Having said that, this story also contains strong language, and depictions of explicit violence and gore.

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**Azumanga Game Series Part One: Versus Mode**

**Match 1.1**

Sixteen figures suspended lifelessly in darkness without details of motion or sound. The figures retained shapes of bodies both short and tall, younger and older, two legged and four legged, male and female. Beneath each body was a disc-shaped platform. On the front side of each platform, the side to which the bodies faced, was a flat display panel that showed a series of values and statistics for each specimen. Gender, age, height, weight, strength, and intelligence were but a few of the significant pieces of information given.

Within the space in which the bodies hovered, time was irrelevant and so were any pre-existing values. The bodies did not sleep, nor did they have any concept of thought as they hung there in the void. They were not creators of their own destinies as normal humans, but instead tools to be implemented at the whims of those in control. They were vessels, none of which held within them any previous convictions or abilities towards inclination.

Suddenly, for two of the bodies, the darkness began to edge away. Two of the discs illuminated at random, and with their burdens they ascended above the others.

The freed discs rose high until the remaining fourteen individuals were but small, invisible bits of matter swallowed up in the obscurity below them. They climbed higher and higher towards the edge of the dark oblivion where two new orifices, twenty feet away from each other, had yawned open to accept them.

Out from the orifices shone a bright, white light. The light fell upon the bodies being carried by the discs and breathed new life and blood into their forms.

Both of the bodies turned out to be girls. One had brown hair that fell just past her shoulders, and the other had similarly colored hair that was cut at an angle above her shoulders. They were of similar size and stature, and both of them came into the light dressed in Summer blue school uniforms.

The orifices that had accepted the girls sealed shut and trapped them into the world of light. The discs that had carried them stopped on a level that was perfectly equal to the surface of a new, larger platform. The larger platform was the roof of a school building. The building was rectangular in shape and completely bare on top. There were no protruding stairwells, air conditioning units, or walls surrounding the top edge. The building itself seemed to be at least forty five stories high and about the size of a football field.

The sky above the building was blue and dotted with clouds. At the building's North end, floating out on a platform by itself, was a massive TV screen measuring fifty by seventy-five feet, height and length wise. Presently the TV screen displayed the number twenty-three flashing in bright, bolds lights behind a scene a nameless metal rock band. The band pounded out a song, the words of which could not be discerned, with a heavy guitar base and thundering drum beat.

The West, East, and South sides of the building were surrounded by stadium-arranged seats. The sections of seats were separated from the arena by several yards, and among those yards was nothing but a very long drop.

In every one of the ninety thousand seats there sat a person screaming and cheering at the top of their lungs. Most of the people were missing features of their faces. On some, where the eyes should have been, there was nothing but smooth skin. On others it was the noses or ears, and there were even those who had no mouths. Those without mouths could not yell, but still they waved their arms and signaled with hand gestures to express their enthusiasm.

Up and down the steps of each section of seats, venders carried trays held up by straps around their necks. Within the trays was an arrangement of items. Some were small boxes ranging in color from white to green to red, and others were tall black cups sealed with a layer of thick wax.

"Ice cold wrath! Sloth! Fresh envy! Get your lust right here!" one of the venders, a man whose head looked like a ball of longish hair with a mouth, shouted his wares as he made his way down from the top row of seats.

A man with no mouth saw the vender approaching and tapped the shoulder of his friend who sat beside him. When his friend, a woman with no nose and only one eye, turned and looked at him, he turned over his left arm and tapped two fingers to his pulse point. The woman nodded and stood up to get the vendor's attention.

"Excuse me," she called, "Two envys and a lust, please!"

"Two envys and a lust! 580 moneys!" the vendor replied, pausing in his step to rummage through the items in his tray. He took up two of the green boxes and one of the red then handed them to the person in the aisle seat to pass on to the woman who in turn passed the moneys to the vendor.

"Can I get some wrath?" another man, one with no nose, one ear, and half a mouth, raised his arm and looked over his shoulder to the vendor.

"One wrath! 300 moneys!" the vendor called and stepped down to the man. He took up one of the frosty black cups and offered it to the customer, his other hand held out to receive the currency that the man dug out from his pocket.

"Do you have any pride also?" the man asked as he placed the moneys in the vendor's palm.

The vendor opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment the crowd suddenly exploded into a frenzy of ecstatic screams. Everyone shot up from their seats, some throwing fists to the air while others grabbed at their neighbor in uncultivated excitement.

Out on the surface of the school roof, the two girls had come fully into view. They stood with their eyes closed and arms limp at their sides.

At that point in time, Kamineko, in his announcer's box above the West side of the arena, leaned forward in his seat and adjusted the volume on his headset.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the twenty-third annual, bi-daily, sometimes semi-sporadically, infrequent, on-and-off-again Versus Mode Death Match," he spoke quickly and with professional conciseness in his smooth, baritone voice, "This series is sponsored by the makers of Bean Paste Sweet Buns, and in part by financial support from blood-thirsty viewers like you. I'm Kamineko and I'll be your host today along with my co-host who will be joining us later in the game."

The grey cat swiveled in his seat to grab some papers from a side table and shuffle them quickly together. He scanned over the first paper in the stack, then glanced outward to the arena below.

"This time's series consists of a total of fifteen matches, and it has been decided that each match will be fought until one or both of the competitors is reduced to what are sponsors and the local television networks prefer to call a 'nonviable condition'. The first round consists of eight of those matches and it looks like we're getting off to a good start this year. Round One, Match One is Ayumu Kasuga, aka 'The Rockin' Osakan', versus Kaorin."

Down on the platform, Kaorin had opened her eyes. She took only a moment to stretch her muscles, standing on her toes and raising her arms high, before she slid her right foot backwards and clenched her hands into fists. She brought her fists level with her face, left fist before right, and glared across the way at her opponent.

Ayumu too had awoken, though she made no physical preparations. Her body remained still and relaxed, and the only motion she offered was a dangerous narrowing of her eyes at the other girl.

Kamineko folded his arms on the table and continued his monologue to the masses.

"We all remember Kaorin from the last tournament when she pulled that thundering backbend on Tomo 'The Wildcat' Takino that won her a position in the final round. Let's take a look at that." He twisted his seat to face a laptop computer that was sitting on the table in front of him. The laptop's monitor currently displayed the same image as the TV outside, though it changed when he typed in a series of combinations and hit 'enter'.

The giant TV screen switched from the rock band to a scene of Kaorin standing behind Tomo with her arms locked firm and low around her waist. The girls were bloody and their uniforms were soaked with sweat. From her standing position, Kaorin lifted on her toes and threw herself backwards, sending the Wildcat over and behind her. Tomo's head and neck smashed solidly against the ground, and moments later she slumped lifelessly to the side. Kaorin ended up flat on her back, a broken, bloody mess, but still breathing.

"It was an incredible move, but unfortunately it couldn't redeem Kaorin for her undignified behavior in following round during her battle with Sakaki, aka 'Lone Wolf'. I'm sure I wasn't the only one hiding my face in shame that day."

Again the scene on the TV changed from one of Kaorin and Tomo to one of Sakaki and Kaorin. Sakaki was standing above the smaller girl who was curled up on her side, her arms hugged tightly about herself. Repeatedly Sakaki kicked the girl, then resorted to smashing her foot down on the side of her head. At last Kaorin shoved the girl's leg away and stumbled up to her feet. Instead of projecting any kind of physical offense she turned and hobbled away from her opponent, her face red and wet with tears. When she reached the arena's end, she wasted no time in forfeiting herself over the edge of it.

"A waste of time and money that left a lot of fans wishing they'd never shown up," Kamineko shook his head, then returned his attention back to the arena at present.

"Your turn is up, Osaka," Kaorin jeered at the other girl, her lips peeling into a snide little grin.

Ayumu's frown deepened. Slowly she parted her feet away from each other and bent her knees slightly to bring herself into a relaxed Wu Chi position.

"Bring it," came her sweetly accented reply.

The scene on the TV was cut short, and the screen displayed a timer of three minutes. As soon as the clock began to count down, the large bell beneath the TV clanged to initiate the fight.

Kaorin made a mad dash for her temporary nemesis, right fist held back in a position ready for a strike. As soon as Ayumu came within punching range she let her arm thrust ahead. Her fist swung in an arc, but suddenly it veered wildly off track as her feet lost contact with the ground. She watched as the ground flipped up, and then landed behind her as she was spun down onto her back.

Ayumu smiled, having hardly moved a muscle to send Kaorin flying over her shoulder. She stepped back and tucked her hands into her pockets.

"What the Hell was that!" Kaorin rolled over and scrambled back up to her feet, "You don't know martial arts!"

"You're right," Ayumu shrugged, "but I saw a martial arts movie one time."

"That has nothing to do with this!"

Kaorin rushed again and this time didn't bother to concentrate on throwing any punches. She crashed full force into the other girl and knocked her back against the ground. Straddling Ayumu's waist, she reached down with both hands and grabbed both sets of fingers around her throat.

Ayumu growled and reached up to curl her arms around Kaorin's. With her grip firm, she rolled them over to claim the top and then grabbed a handful of Kaorin's hair. She lifted the girl's head, then slammed it back against the ground.

Kaorin felt the impact of the ground to the back of her head knocking her brain forward to the front of her skull. Twice it happened before she managed to kick her leg up and send her knee smashing into Ayumu's groin.

Ayumu, grunting in pain, fell to the side and grabbed one hand between her legs. Slowly she regained a standing position. If she had been male then the blow would have been crippling, but such was one of the advantages of being female, a blow to the 'ego' wasn't near enough to deflate her.

Kamineko laughed softly and narrowed his eyes at the scene unfolding before him.

"One minute down in the Blitz session of round one, and neither of these girls are giving an inch. Kaorin deals a hard blow to Kasuga, but Kasuga is still up. Kasuga grabs Kaorin by an ankle and- _whoa _my! Kasuga deals a healthy dose of size-five retribution to her opponent's X-Box!"

Keeping Kaorin's leg twisted up at an odd angle, Ayumu crunched her heel down into the apex of the girl's legs.

Kaorin screamed and twisted herself over onto her side, palms flat to the ground. Pain shot up from her hips to the center of her chest, but it wasn't damaging enough to keep her from kicking her leg back and catching the other girl straight in the stomach.

Ayumu doubled over and folded her arms around her stomach. Though the wind had been knocked from her, she snarled and pounced upon her prostrate enemy who ended up flat beneath her weight. She dug her knee into the small of Kaorin's back and curled one arm around her neck.

Kaorin felt the arm clamp around her throat and suddenly her head was pulled up and back. She reached both hands up and curled them about the other girl's forearm in a vain attempt to release the pressure from her windpipe.

"Breath for breath, Kaorin," Ayumu hissed softly by the girl's ear.

"Fuck…you…" Kaorin gurgled. With Ayumu's knee shoved into her back, she took a risk of further self-injury when she pressed her hands to the ground and heaved herself to the side.

Ayumu was thrown, but kept her arm around Kaorin's throat. This caused her grip to shift oddly, and suddenly she felt the girl's head duck and slip out from the crook of her elbow.

Kaorin whirled around, and with the primitive inclinations of a wild animal, fell upon Ayumu and sank her teeth into the vulnerable pulse point of her neck.

Flat on her back, Ayumu screamed as she felt two pointed canines pop through the first few layers of her skin. She pressed her hands hard to Kaorin's shoulder and shoved her backwards. Unfortunately, as Kaorin was torn from her, so was a healthy chunk of her flesh. Screaming louder, she pressed her hand to the now gaping wound and scrambled backwards.

Kaorin stood up, spitting pieces of Ayumu-meat from her mouth. Blood had smeared from the bottom of her nose all the way around her mouth and down her chin. With the back of her hand she wiped at the mess and then spit one more time.

"Ugh," Kamineko made a face and reflexively wiped at his own mouth, "Move over Meat Companion! (1) Kaorin helps herself to a bite of Kasuga's neck. Technically that makes Kaorin a cannibal, but I tell ya folks, I've bitten a few humans in my time and I gotta say that they don't taste real good."

"You taste like ass," Kaorin sneered.

"You'd be the one to know. Ya spend so much time kissing Sakaki's," came the soft-spoken, yet biting reply as Ayumu lifted her hand away and started to her feet.

Kamineko reached for his cup of coffee.

"Kasuga gets her distance, checks the blood on her hand. By the look on her face you really get the sense that she's never quite experienced a real bite before. A different story for Kaorin who probably got the idea from her match with Kimura in the last tournament," he paused to sip his drink, but no sooner had he taken in the liquid than he had to spit it back into the cup, "Kasuga's up, but suddenly Kaorin's on her again! Kaorin pins Kasuga and absolutely unleashes! Left hook! Right hook! Left! Right! Kasuga's gettin' her ass kicked! Forty two seconds left on the clock! Kasuga thrashes but Kaorin keeps her down! Another punch delivered by Kaorin!"

Every punch that Kaorin delivered was fully fueled with a significant amount of pent up animosity. She pounded her opponent with an energy and form similar to that of a child who had gone out of control.

"Don't! You! _Ever!-_," she panted one word for each time that her knuckles connected with Ayumu's face, "talk like that about Miss Sakaki!"

The blunt trauma to her head had Ayumu seeing the world in shaky hues of grey and red for a few moments. Her lips busted in two separate areas, her nose had crunched under the first few blows, and Kaorin must have been wearing a ring of some kind because her cheeks and forehead became heavily gashed. Fighting unconsciousness, she began to deal blows of her own as much to Kaorin's stomach and kidneys as she could.

Half of the crowd booed and the other half cheered at the unraveling scene. Cups and other miscellaneous items were tossed at the arena by several incensed individuals; however, none of the items landed on the platform due to the gap between the two areas. The rest of the crowd, those who had not placed any bets on the fight and who therefore had no particular interest in either of the competitors as long as one of them was bleeding, cheered on the aggressor and began to uniformly chant the demand for a kill.

"This match may end sooner than we had hoped, folks," Kamineko drawled as he set his cup of coffee back on the table. "It may be all over for Kasuga, but Kaorin only has nineteen seconds to finish her off before the Blitz round ends."

If Ayumu remained supine under Kaorin for much longer, she would no doubt lose consciousness. It would then only be too easy for Kaorin to drag her to the edge of the arena and throw her over, and she wasn't about to give Kaorin such an easy win. She retracted her arms and brought them together in front of her to protect her face. If she could just make it past the Blitz round then she would still have a chance.

The move hardly fazed the livid Kaorin who continued to deal out a series of wild punches, shifting the aim of her attacks to Ayumu's exposed stomach.

Kamineko pounded the side of his fist once to the surface of the table.

"Incredible! Kasuga gives up the fight and goes on the defensive! Kaorin hardly seems to- Wait! Kaorin gets up! She grabs Kasuga by the hair! Kasuga tucks up and doesn't move! Kaorin gets one arm around Kasuga's neck, but it doesn't look like she'll have enough time to strangle her because the Blitz round ends in four! Three! Two! One!"

At that moment, a loud buzzer blared throughout the entire stadium. The majority of the crowd stood and cheered, others simply staying in their seats and clapping.

At the North and South ends of the school roof, two new platforms rose up and became level with the roof's surface. The platforms were similar in size to the ones that had carried the girls, but they each bore different objects.

Kaorin dropped Ayumu and ran to the South end of the arena. There she picked up the item that had been delivered.

The item was a thick, brown book that looked to be several decades old. On the cover of the book, emblazoned in large, orange letters were the words "Book of Omniscient Theory." Underneath the words was an image of an odd-looking, orange cat.

Kaorin smiled widely at this new weapon, though she frowned slightly at the book's weight. It seemed a lot heavier than it should have been. Curiously, she opened the book and found it to be hollowed out. In the hole that had been created, there were two items. The first one was a leather gauntlet with a word engraved into the side of it. Lifting the gauntlet, she brought it closer to her face and narrowed her eyes at the inscription.

"Credence," she read aloud.

Carefully fastening the gauntlet onto her left forearm, she then reached into the book for the second item. It was a dagger, and on the hilt of the dagger, the word 'Self-Righteousness' was carved. As soon as her fingers touched the weapon, she felt an energy snake its way up through her hand, arm, and then throughout her entire body.

Over on the other end of the arena, Ayumu, her face bleeding and her abdomen aching with an insinuation of internal injury, had limped her way to the second item that had been delivered. She picked up the item in both hands, and after a quick examination, concluded that it was an ordinary, wooden baseball bat. Across the side of the bat were two words that had been burned in.

"Autonomous Deliberation," she muttered the inscription to herself.

Suddenly from behind her she heard the sound of running footsteps. She turned just in time to miss a swipe to the ear by Kaorin who fell forward with her own momentum. As she caught a glimpse of the girl, she noticed that there was something different about her.

"Submit!" Kaorin growled as she spun back around and made another jab for her enemy.

There was nothing that had physically changed about Kaorin's looks, but now she seemed to have the faintest bit of a red aura that showed most prominently around the edges of her body.

Ayumu jumped back and gripped her bat tightly in both hands. Keeping her feet shoulder-width apart, she straightened her back and kept her stance steady.

"That's a kinda strong word, don't ya think?" she remarked smoothly.

"It's only sound advice, Osaka," Kaorin replied smugly. "Clearly I have an advantage over you, and your only hope is to beg for mercy." Dagger in her right hand, she advanced upon Ayumu and swung the blade in an upwards arc from right to left.

Ayumu lifted the bat in front of herself and cringed when the blade embedded into the wood. Again she stepped back and gave her weapon a firm yank to disengage it from the intruding metal. Her jaw tightened as she looked upon the new form of her adversary, taking particular note of the dagger and the gauntlet on the girl's arm.

"Your advantage isn't so clear to me. I'd rather have this bat than that dagger."

"That's what makes you the stupid one of the bunch," Kaorin exclaimed as she took another swipe at the girl.

Ayumu dodged the attack with a swift side-step.

"That's crazy!" she shouted, "Who do ya think you are?"

Instead of indulging Ayumu with an answer, Kaorin leapt forward and aimed a slice directly across the line of the girl's stomach.

Ayumu jumped back and then retaliated with a clean sweep of the bat that impacted the side of Kaorin's shoulder. The blow sent Kaorin to the ground, and Ayumu raised the bat over her head.

Kaorin grunted as her body connected with the concrete platform. She brought her hand to her injured shoulder and looked up just in time to see the cylinder of wood coming down on a path leading straight towards her head. Gasping, she rolled to the side a moment before the bat cracked against the ground just behind her.

Ayumu raised the bat again.

"Ya think that your weapon makes you better than me?" Her tone took on an abruptly hateful tinge. "That dagger is nothing! We're on the same ground here!"

Kaorin glared up at the other girl as the bat began to descend again. Keeping low to the ground, she twisted herself around and lashed the dagger outwards towards Ayumu's ankles.

With the leverage of the bat already carrying her slightly forward, Ayumu had not been able to back up from the dagger's reach. She felt the blade cut into her left ankle, slicing the tendon at the back of her heel just above the top edge of her shoe. Shrieking suddenly, she transferred all of her weight to her right foot. If she fell, there was little chance that she would be able to get back up.

Kaorin climbed to her feet and grinned.

"I told you," she said triumphantly.

Ayumu sneered and hopped back on her good foot. Her left foot had gone limp, and her previously white shoe was now soaked in blood. The pain began to set in several moments later, wrenching upwards from her heel and igniting a swift rush of tears.

"You didn't tell me anything," she whispered, her absolute disgust of the other girl's arrogance becoming more obvious by the moment. Since she was unable to perform any kind of offensive move now with one non-functioning foot, she reaffirmed her grip tightly on the bat and held it like a baseball player prepared to swing.

Ready to finish the match once and for all, Kaorin lunged forward and directed the dagger's blade in a quick sweep that was level with Ayumu's throat.

Ayumu waited for the girl to come within striking distance and then swung the bat as hard as she could. Unfortunately, swinging the bat meant leaving her vulnerable to Kaorin's oncoming attack, and she had waited just a moment too long. She saw the blade coming but was unable to dodge it in time, and within a moment she felt the cold steel of the blade slashing a deep line right across the top of her neck. Blood burst from the wound and spattered in a semi-circle pattern against the concrete.

The crowd stirred into another uproar. The majority of individuals who had previously been cheering for Ayumu now cheered for Kaorin. Up in the higher rows, people began to break out their binoculars to get a better look at what was going on.

Coughing harshly, Ayumu fell to her knees and gripped one hand to the gaping injury at her throat. Blood drained down her neck, over her fingers, and into the blue top of her uniform. Her mouth filled with the coppery taste, and yet oddly, after several moments, she was still alive and wheezing for breath.

Smiling more softly now, Kaorin stepped up to the hunched girl and wiped off the blood from the dagger onto the back of her shirt. She then shifted her grip on the hilt, positioning the blade to point downward.

"I'm sorry that you won't make it to the second round this year," she said as she lifted the dagger and held it centered over Ayumu's back. "But that's what you get when you choose the wrong weapon."

Ayumu gurgled in several breaths before she was able to form a reply.

"Neither weapon," she gasped softly, "is wrong…" She dropped her hand from her throat and held it to the bat, right hand clenched above left. "But the way ya use 'em…"

Kaorin frowned and canted her head down to hear what the girl was saying.

Up in the announcer's box, Kamineko was also frowning as he held a pair of binoculars to his eyes.

"I can't make out what's going on down there, but I think Kaorin might be cutting a deal with Kasuga." He paused as he adjusted the focus on his binoculars in an attempt to read Ayumu's lips. "Kasuga hasn't fallen yet and Kaorin's poised to end this at any moment…The crowd is growing impatient. I can only imagine that everyone is wondering why this is still going on, and I'd very much like to know myself."

"You can't be serious," Kaorin tightened her free hand into a fist at her side and glared at the other girl. "You're bleeding to death by injuries that _I_ caused, and you have the gall to sit there and suggest that I've fought you incorrectly?"

"You…heard me," Ayumu rasped.

Just as the stinger of a dead bee is still a threat, Ayumu Kasuga was an intellectual force to be reckoned with whether she was in a classroom or crouched in a puddle of her own blood amid masses of individuals who lacked sufficient senses to understand. She waited until Kaorin had shifted into her peripheral vision, and then with the last bit of energy that the remaining portion of her life-blood would allow, she flinched suddenly in the ninety-degree direction and sent her bat smashing into the girl's knees.

The sound of crunching bone was audible to the nearby audience who groaned, some laughing, and others covering any ears they might have had. At that point all around the stadium, money from previously called bets was snatched back and a mixture of optimism and curses was shouted at the two fighters.

As soon as Kaorin fell backwards, Ayumu hauled herself up and staggered to the screaming girl. Without hesitation she raised the bat, and brought it down upon Kaorin's head in a quick, hacking motion.

Kaorin didn't have much time to feel the pain in her legs, or her head. By the second fall of the bat, her shrieking had been cut short. By the fourth fall of the bat, her skull shattered like a watermelon at the beach.

The last of Ayumu's breath was spent on an overwrought scream of her own. She wailed until her lungs would not constrict any further, and then finally dropped the bat by Kaorin's now lifeless body. She collapsed against the ground and curled up on her side, exhibiting every symptom of a girl who had gone crazy with grief. Her face contorted, and though she heaved with sobs, she could make no sound. The scream would be the last sound she would make for the rest of the tournament.

The surrounding crowd raved at Ayumu's sudden come back. At the West end of the arena, a separate platform ascended quickly between the arena and the stands. The platform carried a penguin who waddled her way onto the rooftop and over to the two fall girls.

The penguin seemed to be just like any other Antarctic resident of the same species, though instead of black she was a curious shade of very dark blue. She went first to Kaorin and stood over her for a moment to assess her condition. She then did the same to Ayumu before turning towards the announcer's box and raising both of her wings towards the sky.

"Match 1:1 goes to Ayumu Kasuga," she spoke, her voice booming out over the entire stadium by way of a small microphone that had been attached to her chest.

The crowd burst into rounds of screams and cheers. Fights broke out in several sections and one man even fell to his death over the edge of the stands. The TV at the North end displayed the results of the fight. It first showed each competitor's stats, then the damage done to each girl, and the amount that the attacks had been worth.

Kamineko exhaled and leaned back in his seat.

"Amazing, amazing, amazing! If you didn't see it here, you won't see it anywhere else. For the first time in two tournaments, The Rockin' Osakan brings home a win and secures herself a place in the second round. Let's get a quick recap of that last move."

In the bottom right hand corner of the TV, a section of the screen showed Ayumu in slow motion, twisting around and breaking Kaorin's knees in. Kaorin's shock was evident in a frame-by-frame basis as the bones in her legs broke backwards and she collapsed. Ayumu stood, and for the next minute the audience was treated to a close up of the scene they had witnessed just moments before. As Ayumu repeatedly smashed the bat over the girl's head, flying bone chips and grey matter were brought into stunning life thanks to the TV's state-of-the-art LCD screen.

The scene replayed again and Kamineko brought it into a freeze frame the moment before Ayumu whirled about. He took up his Intuo3 Grip pen and digital tablet that was linked to the lap top.

"I missed this before," he said, using the pen to draw a circle around the image of Ayumu's hands, "but we can see here that Kasuga had this set up. Right here she's really got a good grip on that bat, and in the next frame, here, she's able to just nail Kaorin right below the knee caps. That should be a lesson to all future competitors. Don't get ahead of yourself until your opponent is either crushed or laying in several different pieces. Now I'm gonna turn things over to Eiko, our correspondent in the field, and maybe she can tell us a little more about what happened down there." Turning from the laptop, he reached for the radio panel to which his headset was digitally linked. Depressing one of the com-link buttons at the bottom of the panel, he spoke again into his headset. "Eiko? How about it?"

Down on the arena platform, Eiko, using one hand to keep her ear piece pressed to her ear and the other to hold her microphone, stood beside the penguin who had initially called the match. Behind her, two maintenance men were busy cleaning up what was left of Kaorin while two more hauled Ayumu onto a stretcher and carried her from the roof top.

"Thanks, Kamineko," Eiko responded loudly in order to be heard over the sound of screaming fans in the background, "I'm here with the tournament paramedic responsible for assessing competitors' injuries." She turned to the penguin who bowed politely. "Ms. Penguin, the first question on everyone's mind is why Ayumu Kasuga is still alive after that supposedly debilitating cut to her throat. I mean we all saw the cut, we all saw the blood, and yet Ayumu was able to turn things around and make that come back. How is that?"

"Well," the penguin shrugged slightly, "The cut was deep, but the angle was too sharp and the blade missed the carotid artery. A few more minutes and Ayumu would have bled to death, but the blood loss, comparatively speaking, wasn't that bad."

"And what about Kaorin?"

"An obvious cause of death. If funerals existed for these fighters, hers would be closed-casket."

"All right then," Eiko laughed and turned back towards the camera. "Back to you Kamineko."

"Thanks, Eiko," Kamineko smiled and disengaged the com-link. "And we'll be right back with Match 1:2 of Versus Mode Death Match after these brief messages." With that, he cut the line and removed his headset.

* * *

(1). As opposed to Hamburger Helper. I don't own them either.

**Note:** And no, I don't have anything against Kaorin. Anyone who reads my stories should know that my like or dislike of a character carries no weight with what happens to them in the stuff that I write.


	2. Fight 12

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any Azumanga Daioh characters.

**Note:** Same warnings apply. Violence, death, blah, blah, blah.

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**Azumanga Game Series: Versus Mode**

**Match 1.2**

"And welcome back to the sometimes twenty-third annual Versus Mode Death Match," Kamineko voiced into the receiver of his headset at the end of the five minute commercial break, "If you're just tuning in, we're getting ready now for the second fight of this season. Match 1:1 was Ayumu Kasuga heading up against Kaorin, and if you missed that fight then I'll tell you that it was definitely a fight worth witnessing. Kaorin kept the lead for the most part, but in the end she just couldn't take that mad Osakan heat. I'll go ahead and remind those of you watching from home that you can purchase copies of this season's tournament through our website." He paused a moment to check his watch, then looked out at the battle platform. "Moving right along, it looks like they've got the arena cleaned up and we're ready to keep this tournament rolling."

The two platforms at the center of the arena had descended. Left in their places were two holes, soon to be occupied with the next pair of fighters.

Kamineko took into his hands the stack of papers which were his notes for the current events. The page at the top of the stack was a letter that had been printed out. As an announcer, it was Kamineko's job to keep the air filled with something even when there was nothing going on in the arena itself.

"Just a while ago we received an email from a Mr. Yoshida in the Ginza area. Mr. Yoshida writes: _'I've been watching the games for years and Ayumu Kasuga is definitely my favorite player. Every time I see her, I break out in hives and start biting myself. Have you ever heard of this?'_ And actually, Mr. Yoshida, we have. Yours is the seventh letter we've gotten that has mentioned some strange effect synonymous with Kasuga's presence out in the arena. We here at the Death Match Broadcasting Committee don't have an explanation, but if you shop around for a doctor long enough I'm sure you'll find one who can give you a pill that will make Ayumu Kasuga disappear completely without risk of side effects."

From outside of the announcer's box there came an abrupt increase in noise level as people once again stood from their seats and began cheering.

At the East end of the arena, a rather large congregate of people who had arranged themselves into several adjacent rows brought out homemade posters and banners and began waving them. Several such groups around the stadium subsequently arose, some consisting of only men, others consisting of only girls, and still others carrying a fair mix of both.

Kamineko glanced up from the letter and saw that one of the competitor platforms had returned. Quickly he tossed the pile of papers aside and readjusted his headset to a more secure fit.

"We'll have to come back to that because right now it looks like the first of our two new competitors has arrived, and the crowd is already going completely out of their minds for this one! A favorite to the masses with perfect measurements of tall, dark, and dangerously sexy, she was the cover model for last month's issue of '_Naked and Half-Naked Women_' magazine. One-hundred and seventy-four centimeters worth of chilled death served with a glass of Chateau Margaux, the fighter who never disappoints, it's 'Lone Wolf' Sakaki!"

Sakaki had been ascended to the roof top dressed in the winter style school uniform. Her eyes were open and a serious scowl was already set upon her face as she looked out over the crowd.

Kamineko turned to his laptop and brought up Sakaki's status profile. On the left side of the profile, a three dimensional image of the girl rotated in a clockwise fashion. To the right of the moving display, her basic statistics were listed, including height, weight, ratio of wins to losses, and basic strengths and weaknesses. A mirror display of the screen appeared on the giant TV for all to see.

"Sakaki by far has the vote of a lot of Death Match fans," the cat reported as he brought up another file on the computer. The file was a scanned article from a national newspaper dated from the previous week. "It's not just her performance in the arena, but her elusiveness before the cameras as well. She never gives interviews and does little else but ignore her numerous fan gatherings. I was sure that this aloofness would cost her a lot of popularity in the beginning, but it seems that the more she withholds, the more people want of her. Last week the '_Present Times'_ published an article about this, and I quote, _'There is not one single accredited individual who can disclose even her first name. A spokesperson for Miss Sakaki avoided questions regarding the girl's personal information and would say only that the rumors surrounding her supposed feline allergies were incorrect."_

Out in the arena, Sakaki watched as the hole of the second disc was slowly filled with the form of her competitor. The second disc rose up and locked into its place, its player standing still upon it. Sakaki's eyes narrowed, and then went wide for a brief, barely discernable moment as she took in her opponent's identity.

The crowd too seemed to express an awkward mixture of cheers and mumbles as they glanced upon this new fighter. Some rummaged through pockets and purses for the list of the current competitors while others looked around to see if anyone else knew what was going on.

Kamineko tilted his head to the side and frowned.

"Hm?" the exclamation escaped him accidentally before he too searched for his copy of the tournament line up. He found the paper on the floor by his chair and leaned down to snatch it up. Glancing over the front of the paper, he flipped it once to check the back and then scratched his head. The name that he was looking for was listed at the very bottom of the page right underneath Ayumu Kasuga. Ayumu's name had been underlined and the line had consequently run over onto the name beneath it. He looked up at the second fighter in the arena, then back to the list. "Miruchi?" he announced in a tone that was more questioning than affirmative.

Miruchi stood dressed in the dark blue winter uniform that was issued to girls attending middle school-level classes. Her hands were folded politely in front of her, and the look on her face that had at first been assertive had melted into stark terror when she had gotten a look at her competition.

Suddenly concerned, Sakaki stepped back and looked between the crowds and the referee penguin that stood on her own platform beside the arena. There were no jokes, false starts, or do-overs in the tournaments. Without a doubt she was expected to fight this little girl.

Kamineko hit the 'mute' button on his headset and twisted his seat around. He motioned to his assistant who had been sitting at a desk behind him, organizing game data into a file on his own lap top.

"Matsuyama! Who the Hell is Miruchi?"

The boy looked up, and after giving a slight adjustment to his glasses, reached for a paper that he been half way sitting on. He offered the paper to Kamineko who grabbed it up and turned back around in his seat.

Kamineko hit the 'mute' button again and cleared his throat, scanning the paper quickly.

"Yes, Miruchi! Standing not very tall and not very big, Miruchi is a first-time competitor here in the Death Match tournaments. Anyone who watches the matches on a regular basis probably knows better than to judge a fighter by size. The most obvious example of this is our very own Chiyo Mihama. Chiyo's a sweet girl with a wicked bite, and I'm reading here on Miruchi's profile that the two girls were actually associated with each other before Chiyo herself became a fighter." Kamineko sighed and folded his arms on the table, lifting one hand to scratch behind an ear. "I don't like to jump to conclusions, but I really don't see this match getting past the Blitz round."

The display of Sakaki's profile on the giant TV again switched to that of a timer starting at three minutes. The timer began to count down, and once more the bell beneath the TV clanged to indicate the beginning of the Blitz round.

Miruchi unclasped her hands from in front of her and backed away from her opponent. She would have been able to take on Chiyo, Ayumu, or possibly even Chihiro, but her first battle just had to be with one of the top ranking fighters. She looked towards the penguin referee who raised one of her fins and nodded.

Sakaki swallowed hard, but finally straightened and swept the anxiety from her expression. Up until that point she had been lucky that she had not had to fight any one who was several years younger than herself. She had always wondered what she would do when it inevitably happened, and now she had to figure something out. With her characteristic mask of coolness in place, she walked towards the smaller girl with her right hand lifted in a sign of passivity.

Miruchi started and clenched her hands reflexively to the tie of her uniform as she watched the dark girl approach. She glanced around for something, anything, that she might have been able to use as a weapon, but much to her further disadvantage, the Blitz round was hand-to-hand only.

"Wait," Sakaki spoke up calmly when she saw the girl about to take off, "I'm not going to hurt you."

Miruchi could feel the whimper that caught in her throat. She took another half step back, her knees beginning to shake just slightly as Sakaki came directly up to her.

Sakaki lowered to a crouch and smiled softly at the girl.

"I think there's been a mistake. You shouldn't have to fight me on your first time," she said as she offered out her hand.

For a moment, Miruchi looked cautiously at the outstretched hand. Of all the things that people said about Sakaki, they never said that she was an inherently vicious girl. Sakaki did not pull dirty tricks like Yukari, and she did not view all of her opponents without bias like Tomo. Tentatively, she extended her hand and placed it into Sakaki's upturned palm.

Sakaki closed her hand around Miruchi's and then stood back up.

"Come on," she said with a gentle grin and started off towards the referee's platform.

The grin alleviated much of Miruchi's fears and the girl was able to respond with a soft smile of her own. She followed along with Sakaki, keeping her free hand tightened absently into her tie.

"Thank you," she spoke up to her would-be opponent.

"Don't mention it," Sakaki replied. She slipped her hand out from Miruchi's and placed her arm around the girl's shoulders.

With every full step that Miruchi took, Sakaki took a half, then a third, and then a fourth. She measured the length of her steps subtly to slowly remove herself from the other girl's peripheral vision. At the right moment, several yards before they reached the penguin, she suddenly clamped her hands to the sides of Miruchi's head and wrenched her neck sideways until it snapped.

The entire move had taken no more than a moment. Miruchi hadn't even thought of screaming before suddenly her sensory perceptions were severed and she slumped instantly as dead weight into Sakaki's arms.

Kamineko had taken a moment to copy down some of the more important notes on Miruchi for his own future reference.

"Forty seconds down on the clock and the fighters have yet to-"

He then looked up from his desk and saw that Miruchi was no longer walking with Sakaki but was instead hanging in her arms like a sack of grain. Quickly he grabbed up his binoculars to get a better look at the smaller girl. Only then was he able to seethe blank look in her eyes and the odd kink in her neck.

"Never mind," he continued, "Somewhere between taking Sakaki's hand and walking, Miruchi seems to have died."

Sakaki lowered Miruchi's body to the ground before standing straight once more. Truthfully she had not wanted to hurt the girl and, under the circumstances, Miruchi's death had been as painless as possible.

Despite the lack of blood and action, the crowd joined in collective cheers for Sakaki's behavior. Three large men in fifth row seats stood up and yanked off their shirts. Across the exposed skin of their chests, now revealed were the symbols of Sakaki's name, one symbol bared on each chest.

"We love you, Sakaki!" the middle man with a 'KA' symbol on his chest shouted with his hands cupped around his mouth.

"You're the best!" his obviously intoxicated friend with the 'SA' yelled out.

Sakaki glanced over her shoulder and spotted the three men who waved their shirts back and forth trying to get her attention. She narrowed her eyes and frowned at the lot, though paid them no more mind before making her way back to the platform that had lifted her to the arena.

The penguin stepped from her spot and approached Miruchi's body. Leaning over the prone form, she held one fin under the girl's nose to check for breath .Upon finding none, she then lifted one of her wrists to check for a pulse, of which there was none either. She dropped the hand and then turned to face the West side of the stadium, again raising both of her fins in the air.

"Match 1:2 goes to Miss Sakaki," she announced with no surprise.

Kamineko made a face and tossed away the paper on which he had been compiling information on Miruchi.

"Rack another win for the Lone Wolf. This match was over before it started, but let's get a better look at that first and last move. The Section-G camera probably got the best shot," he said and turned back to his lap top.

Within a moment, the TV displayed a frontal angle of Miruchi and Sakaki. In slow motion, Sakaki was seen to grab the girl by the head as though she were protecting her ears from offensive material. In four frames, Miruchi's neck was twisted and she fell back. It was obvious that she had not been aware of her opponent's intentions as her grin never entirely faded.

Kamineko bobbed his head in understanding as he watched the play for the first time himself.

"Any fighter should be so lucky to have such a quick and painless end. Maybe next time we'll be able to find out a little more about our friend Miruchi, but as it stands now, I think we just might have learned something new about our Lone Wolf, Sakaki," he stated thoughtfully, "With that, Miss Sakaki takes Match 1:2 of the tournament and concludes the fights for today. We'll be here tomorrow night at 8:00, Longitude time with the next two matches of this time's Versus Mode Death Match, so make sure you tune in for the action. I'm Kamineko, reminding you to stay smart by not imitating any of the sequences you might have seen on this show. Our fighters our not trained professionals, but they don't have a choice. Until next time," he ended the commentary and slipped his head set off.

Matsuyama shut down his lap top and stood from his seat. With the games having ended for the day, he set about straightening up the area for use the following day.

"Hey, Kamineko," he said, reaching down for a couple of papers from under the cat's seat.

"What," the feline replied as he picked up the pack of cigarettes that had been resting beside his computer. Taking one of the cigarettes between his lips, he lit the end of it with a disposable lighter. The lighter required five clicks, but finally it resulted with a small flame that was just enough to ignite the cigarette paper.

"Is it true about you and Sakaki? Were you really in a relationship?"

Kamineko chuckled and leaned back in his seat, watching the throngs of people beginning to sift their way from the stadium rows. How they would get down from the stadium was something that he had never really figured out, nor did he care to. They were in the same position as he was, serving a purpose that they couldn't understand.

"What we had wasn't a relationship," he replied, "It was an understanding."

* * *

**Note:** Woot. Glad I got at least that much out of my system. Now it's time to get back to that other fish hook of a story that's been in my eye for the past year. Actually, it would be great if I could just finish something that I start. 


	3. Fight 13

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any Azumanga Daioh characters.

**Note:** Since the point of this story is not realism, the deaths don't matter. The story is written as though to depict one slice of what is a never-ending chain of events.

**Note2:** I got motivated to continue this when I discovered that there is an actual AzuDai fighting game. Now my mission is to get my hands on it...somehow.

* * *

**Azumanga Game Series Part One: Versus Mode**

**Match 1.3**

Kamineko yawned as he entered through the door of the announcer's box. He slipped his jacket off and tossed it onto the coat rack before making his way to his desk on the far end of the room.

Matsuyama was already there at his own desk with his laptop booted and ready. Hearing the approaching footsteps, he turned in his seat and smiled at the grey cat.

"Hey," he greeted with a genuine enthusiasm not found with the majority of people who worked the tournaments. He took up a stack of freshly copied papers from his desk and offered them to the feline.

"Evening," Kamineko replied, taking the papers from the boy as he walked by. He hopped up onto his own seat and made himself comfortable, sinking back against the cushion as he flipped through the sheets. Included in the stack were typed versions of his notes from the previous day, the lineup of remaining contenders, a list of sponsors, and relevant news articles. He sighed and looked out at the stadium.

Day had turned to night. The sky was black and hardly any stars could be seen beyond the massive, blaring white lights that were stationed at the stadium's four corners. The stadium itself was slowly reaching maximum capacity as people filed into their designated seats. Vendors patrolled their sections as always, and the usual maintenance team, wearing green utility shirts with "govt" written across the backs of them, was busy sweeping off the arena.

Kamineko turned his computer on. As he waited for the system to boot, he leaned his elbows on the desk and folded his paws in front of his muzzle.

In his experience, night games were twice as rowdy as their daytime counterparts. There was no specific difference that he could pin point as the cause of this, but there was a definite divergence of energy. Perhaps it was the surreal effect of surrounding darkness bringing focus to the arena on which fighters laid out their humanity and their lives for the sake of public entertainment, or it could simply be that a lot of people showed up to night games drunk.

He picked up his earphones and fitted them carefully onto his head, giving a small adjustment to the connected microphone. He checked his watch and then leaned over to bring the control panel of the digital link to the 'on' and 'receiving' position.

Exactly at eight o'clock, the lights at the corners of the stadium shut off. Two spotlights at the East and West ends turned on and began sweeping over the audience in figure eight patterns. The colossal TV at the North side showed its display of a blinking '23' amid a background of fireworks, all set to appropriately hard, metal music.

The audience responded instantly to these changes, riling up into all sorts of random outbursts. One fight had already broken out in one of the upper sections of the East end and was soon split apart by tournament security.

"Allll right," Kamineko announced into his mic, "The time is now and that time is this! The possibly twenty-third Versus Mode Death Match sponsored by," he paused and double checked his notes, "Bean Paste Sweet Buns. If you're a sugar-loving lactose intolerant who likes to avoid the misery and woe of an upset stomach, Bean Paste Sweet Buns is the sweet snack for you. I'm Kamineko, your host for the events, and if you missed the first part of the tournament you can catch yourself up at our website. Right now I'm looking over the tournament outline and it looks like there are three matches planned for this evening, possibly four depending on time constraints. As regular viewers know, some matches can last less than a minute, and others can drag on for hours depending on fighters' will to live."

The two inner platforms in the arena had descended to retrieve their randomly selected players. As he waited for the platforms to return, he shifted his notes to bring up some relevant information to report in the meantime.

"And in reference of our website, we had a lot of responses to the recent poll that we had up there. The question was '_Kagura: What kind of underwear?_' and I'm actually kind of surprised at the results. Sixty-four percent said thong, twenty-two percent said boxers, eleven percent said jock strap, and the remaining three percent said granny-panties. I can understand the thong and the jock strap, and maybe if I'm in the mood for it then I can imagine the boxers, but if you're one of those people who voted that Kagura wears grannies, go ahead and send us an email telling us why. Likewise, if you think that she wears thongs or boxers, write us anyway. We love to hear your thoughts."

Out in the stadium, the steady stream of music that had been blasting in through the speakers gradually faded to silence and was replaced with a different beat.

The new music was not random, and its familiar, pulsating bass was so distinct out of all other compositions used in the tournaments that spectator tension rose tenfold in reaction to it. Similar to Sakaki's fan gatherings, the music was cause for another classification of Death Match devotees to rise from their seats and lose themselves with enthusiasm.

On the arena, the head of the maintenance team quickly swung his broom onto his shoulder and waved his arm to the other three workers.

"Hurry up!" he shouted, turning on his heel and making a mad dash for the separate platform that had lifted them.

Two of the other members had needed no further warning. They struggled to grab up their iron sponges, scrapers, buckets, brooms, and other items and remove themselves from the arena as fast as possible.

The fourth and newest member to the team followed the lead of the others by getting his own stuff together, though with a bit less haste.

"What's wrong? We still have two minutes!" he yelled.

The first of the two other men, the one struggling with two full buckets of water, shot a look over his shoulder.

"Just get off the arena! Now!" he shouted and ran faster towards the exit.

The fourth man scoffed, but nonetheless picked up his pace and followed the others off of the school roof. As soon as he had safely joined them on the exit platform, he dropped his broom and his bucket. Resting his hands to the small of his back, he gradually regained his breath.

"What's all that about," he asked his boss who was presently fanning himself with his uniform cap.

"The reason that you're working here in the first place," the man replied grimly. The other two men nodded, one nervously rubbing at the back of his neck.

Kamineko too had heard the auditory adjustment. His ears had perked for but a brief moment before flattening back. He expelled a sigh and rested his chin to his palm.

"Well, Match 1:3 is about to get underway. Competitor number one hasn't even made it to the arena yet, but her reputation precedes her. Love her or hate her, no one thinks nothing about her. Her erratic behavior and short temper make her one of the more feared players in the tournament, and she's the only competitor so far to have implemented a theme song. I don't know how she does it or why she did it, but her fans love her for it and the ratings are proof of it. She's a bitchin' ball of energy with a quick tongue and surly step, a raging pandemonium of emotion, the girl who won't talk behind your back because she'll say it to your face, Tomo 'The Wildcat' Takino!"

From the South side of the stadium, a third spotlight flashed directly over the platform that was just bringing its player into view.

Unlike the previous competitors, Tomo did not emerge to the arena like a standing doll. Dressed in a pair of tight denim shorts, a green button-up top, and a baseball cap, her feet were shoulder width apart and her arms were crossed in an X over her chest. Her head was bowed and her eyes were closed, but that changed in the very instant that the platform came to a halt. At that moment, her eyes shot open and she threw her head back with an ecstatic yell. Releasing her arms from their set position, she broke from the platform and ran out across the arena.

Kamineko watched the display with slightly less enthusiasm. He turned to his laptop and brought up Tomo's graphic profile which in turn displayed on the TV outside.

"In addition to being a melodramatic show off, Tomo is a statistical impossibility. I've never heard of another fighter who could lose so many matches and still remain so popular among fans. She doesn't carry the mystery that Miss Sakaki does, and she certainly doesn't have the charm of Chiyo Mihama, but Tomo is a girl who really caters to her followers. It's obvious that she loves the attention, and her fans love her right back for the same reasons that others truly dislike her."

Keeping Tomo's profile up on his laptop, he returned his attention to his hardcopy notes, flipping back the first few pages to a series of cut-and-pasted articles. "Like all of our fighters, the Wildcat is not without her share of rumors and scandal. I don't know if anyone else remembers the story run a few months back that claimed Tomo to be in an intimate relationship with another fighter, Koyomi Mizuhara. The claim was adamantly denied by both sides and seems to have created a definite friction between the two girls ever since. The last report covering the story published in '_The Present Times_' several weeks ago said simply that the girls are no longer on speaking terms."

Tomo screamed like an acid-dropper on a bad day as she dashed to the very South end of the school roof and then circled back. With her very own specialized song filling the heads and controlling the attention of ninety thousand people, she fed them her energy and in turn fed from theirs in a sensational exchange that could only be comprehended between longing individuals and the object of their desires, the one thing that they could never touch and therefore never tire of.

In each section, first-row fans of the girl leaned over the railing that separated them from a fall to their deaths. They stretched their arms out with impossible hopes of bringing their finger tips within a few meager yards of the Wildcat's body as she passed by. All around the stadium there rose more hand crafted banners ranging in text from "Tomo Makes Me Randy" to "Wildcat Heat" to "Die Tomo Die" and still others conveying similar messages of love and hate, always with the idea of Tomo at the center of them.

Tomo returned to the arena's southern most edge and stopped. There she ripped off her baseball hat and hurled it out towards the audience where it landed just within the first few rows. A woman caught the hat and was instantly attacked by the people sitting around her. Like starving dogs to a scrap of meat, they wrestled for the cap until finally a man grabbed it and ran as fast as he could for the exit. Several people chased after him just as security made their way to the area to restore order.

Still dancing to the beat of her own drum, Tomo laughed at the peoples' struggles with a satisfied grin as though she were completely separated from their turmoil. She lifted her hands to the top button of her shirt, and as soon as her fingers touched the plastic disc, from every direction the stadium flickered with camera flashes.

One after another she parted the buttons until her shirt was left open. Then with a sensual rolling of her right shoulder followed by a similar motion of the left, she let the piece drop behind her to reveal the light blue bikini top she wore underneath.

Kamineko pinched the bridge of his nose as he listened to the sound of audience approval at the Wildcat's show.

"Tomo has a way of creating new standards here in the Death Match tournaments," he said, "but they're not the kind of standards that anyone else, for the sake of their name and dignity, would bother to try and reach. To say that she is an attention whore would be an understatement. She's a mean girl with a disregard for limitations and a peculiar ability of detachment. Her entrance of last year's tournament is proof."

Changing into replay mode, the screen of the giant TV divided its image in half. Tomo's profile remained on one side while the other conveyed a clip from the last season.

The shot was of Tomo ascending to the arena, dressed in a Summer blue uniform. When the platform stopped, she jumped from it and suddenly sprinted off to the side. The camera angle switched to catch the crouched figure of a maintenance worker who was using an ice pick to scrape off a streak of dried meat from the ground. Suddenly Tomo, snarling and snapping like an animal, pounced upon him and knocked him forward. The man screamed and dropped his tool as he tried to stand and wrestle the girl away, but Tomo snatched up the discarded pick and wasted no time in stabbing it through the back of his neck. As the man fell, she wrenched the pick to the side in a motion that caused an audible crunching of spine. Then, screaming her victory, she thrust two fists into the air and jumped away from the body. In the background, Kaorin appeared from off screen with a broom gripped in both hands.

Kamineko cut the replay and looked to the Wildcat as she was presently.

Tomo had kicked her discarded shirt off the edge of the arena and folded her arms behind her head. While the cameras continued to flash, she turned herself left and right to offer the photographers any angle that they wished. She leaned forward and placed her hands to her knees, picking a point in the audience to smile towards. She then turned and tucked her hands into her back pockets.

Every person in the stadium with a camera was given ample opportunity to catch her in these poses, later to be edited and airbrushed to fit their every desire. As it usually happened, the photos would end up in magazines, personal collections, editorials, websites, and almost everywhere else that allowed room for a propagandistic element.

So intent had Tomo been on indulging the audience with her presence that she failed to notice when the second platform ascended to the battle field.

Kamineko glanced at the platform and did a double take when he recognized the new fighter. His disapproving expression disappeared and he took up his binoculars to get a better look.

"And we have our second fighter!" he exclaimed, "Tomo may have earned her label as the tournament's Wildcat, but she'll never be able to live up to the true meaning of the term. Our next fighter is all that and a quarter more. He's a fuzzy little wad of feline aggression who would just as soon curl into your lap as he would take a slice at your throat. He's great with the ladies and gentlemen alike, a manifestation of dangerously delightful kitty-cat-cuteness combined with a raw instinct towards predation of anything that moves: It's Maya the Iriomote wildcat!"

Maya stepped casually from his platform and looked ahead at his opponent. Had Tomo been any of the other tournament competitors, he would not have even twitched a whisker. Yet to the sight of the bouncing girl, he bristled visibly.

Only when her song ended did Tomo turn from the audience and place her hands to her hips. Looking across the arena, she spotted her competition and her triumphant smirk fell. At once she snarled and turned towards the referee penguin, one hand clenched and the other pointing angrily at the cat.

"What the Hell kinda crap is this!" she shouted, "This isn't play time! Get serious!"

The penguin only shrugged and shook her head in apology. The fights were indeed chosen at random and there was nothing she could do to control which fighter fought with whom.

Tomo glared back at Maya. Just the sight of him was enough to make the scar at the back of her right hand throb slightly.

"Stupid cat," she muttered.

Kamineko chuckled and leaned forward with new found interest in the match.

"It's one wildcat versus another in this first-time face off. For a long time there have been rumors surrounding a supposed confrontation between Maya and Tomo that happened somewhere outside of the arena. Unfortunately there were no eye witnesses to the events, but Chiyo Mihama hinted in an interview that the tension between them did not come from nowhere."

Tomo sighed as the bell for the Blitz round sounded. She knew that the fans came to the tournaments for a show, and giving them a show was the main reasons that she loved to fight. Even though there was not much entertainment in kicking a cat around, there was no task that she could not make interesting in her own way.

She ran to the penguin and snatched the microphone from her chest. The penguin made a small attempt to take the item back, but she was not about to invoke Tomo's bad side.

Tomo examined the microphone for the 'on' switch as she returned to the South end of the arena. Flipping the switch, she then blew onto the piece to test it. The sound reverberated through the stadium and resulted in cheers from the audience.

"So," she said, pausing when more screams arose.

Maya had seen more than enough. Ears flattened back, he shot off towards his opponent who had been stupid to keep her back turned to him. The closer he came to her, the louder the audience grew.

Tomo mistook the crowd's new enthusiasm for more fanfare directed at the brashness of her actions with the microphone.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat," she continued, "You guys wanna see the first one?"

She turned, but was suddenly hit full in the face with an angry little ball of fur. Screaming, she dropped the microphone and thrashed wildly. Try as she might to grab at her aggressor, she could hardly manage to grip him without being rewarded with a bite.

Maya sank his back claws into Tomo's head and swiped with his forepaws. He managed one lucky slice to the girl's face that resulted in a gash across her left eye.

Kamineko looked dull as he watched Tomo scramble around the arena with Maya clawing around her head.

"Well," he sighed, "This could be a lot worse I suppose. Tomo is many times bigger than Maya, but it looks like her stupidity is show enough for anyone."

Tomo screamed louder and finally grabbed the cat by the neck. She slammed him full force against the ground, but not in time to avoid a bite between her thumb and index finger. Falling back, she pressed both hands to her face.

Kamineko winced. "Once again Maya proves that there's no greater advantage than the element of surprise. I admit enough to say that Tomo can be formidable competition when she puts her mind to it, but she's lacking in common sense. This time it looks like it cost her some eye sight."

Maya got to his feet and hissed. His impact with the ground had probably fractured few of his ribs, but it hadn't been near enough to incapacitate him. Ignoring the throb in his side, he lunged at the girl again with the intention of taking out her other eye.

Tomo rolled away and scrambled to her feet. For a moment she ran to keep herself a distance from the cat as she checked her hands. A mixture of blood and vitreous fluid had smeared against them, the same combination that ran down her left cheek. Both of her eyes remained intact, but the left one now bore a deep gash.

Maya followed the girl and pounced on her back. As she whirled about to catch him, he held on and managed to sink his teeth into her shoulder.

Tomo yelled at the punctures before she was finally able to grab a hold of Maya's tail. Using this new advantage, she tore the animal away and spun in a circle to gain momentum. At the right moment, she let go and set him flying over the arena's edge.

All of Tomo's various fan clubs wildly cheered the victory while the rest of the audience simply clapped. The death had not been very glamorous and they therefore had nothing to gain from the experience.

The clock buzzed and the penguin stepped forward to announce the victor along with two paramedics who arrived from their own platforms.

Tomo sank to the ground and held her hands to her face. Rocking herself gently, she screamed with her mouth shut tight.

Kamineko raised an eyebrow. "All I can say is 'ouch' and 'ouch'. This one didn't make it past the Blitz round, but I'm sure that things will get interesting enough for our surviving Wildcat later in the tournament. That injury is going to complicate her chances at victory, but knowing Tomo she'll probably find a way to surprise us all one more time. For now we're gonna take a break but don't go anywhere. We have a lot more blood to spill here on Versus Mode: Death Match."

He cut the link and slipped his headset off.

Matsuyama approached the window stood beside the cat with his hands in his pockets. Together they watched as Tomo, keeping her face hidden in her hands, was escorted from the arena by the paramedics.

"That's never happened before," said the boy. "You think she'll be alright?"

Kamineko shrugged. "What's it matter? You got a soft spot for the players now?"

Matsuyama made no reply. He returned to his seat and brought up Tomo's profile to edit. Another match, another statistic, another point already fading with time for everyone but the girl who had created it and suffered its consequences.

* * *

**Note: **This chapter could have been longer, but I'm not one for depictions of animal cruelty, even if it _is_ just a jest. 


	4. Fight 14

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any Azumanga Daioh characters.

**Note: **Better late than never.

* * *

**Azumanga Game Series Part One: Versus Mode**

**Match 1.4**

On the West side of the stadium in the 35th row, two boys sat facing each other with cards spread in their hands.

"I'll trade you three Osakas for your Kagura," one boy said.

The other boy fingered his Kagura card suspiciously. "Which Osakas are they?"

"Two first versions, and one third."

"What's the third version?"

The first boy held up a card that depicted Osaka in a one-piece bathing suit with a lifesaver around her waist. In her left hand she held a watermelon with a smiley face painted on it, and in her right hand she held a spiked mace over her shoulder.

The second boy smiled, but it faded when he looked down to his version-four Kagura card. On the card, Kagura was portrayed from behind in a summer blue uniform. With both hands she held a bloodied baseball bat across the back of her neck, and she was smirking over her shoulder. Across the bottom of the image, right above the box of her season stats, the words 'Wanna bite?' were written in bold italics. The quote had boosted Kagura's popularity several seasons earlier when she had used them to taunt Tomo in the third round. She had won the fight, and ever since then, the quote had been spoofed in everything from movies to commercials to random blurbs used by everyday people in everyday conversation. It had been printed on everything with Kagura's brand: t-shirts, mugs, dish sets, posters, and even one dark blue DB9 Aston Martin in which Kagura had ridden one time in a parade, and that would later sell in an online auction for $500,000 to an art collector who was open about his collection of Kagura-related items.

The boy shook his head and tucked the Kagura card back into his stack. "What else do you have?"

The other boy pursed his lips and sifted through his cards. He considered giving up his version-two Kaorin that showed the girl on the inner side of a battle cage and dressed in common PE outfit. She was gripping the cage and leaning into it, smiling in a manner that could have either been flirtatious or conniving. He shook his head and continued sifting. Kaorin was his favorite player. Instead he held up a version-three card of Chiyo leaning back against what looked like an old brick wall. She was dressed in a ragged black and white school uniform, and around her neck there was a collar with two rows of spikes. Her left hand was folded behind her, and her right hand held a common switch blade, the tip of which she pressed to the corner of her smile. Kitty ears and a tail had been added via photo manipulation, she had been airbrushed to look darker than she actually was.

"How about this one?"

The second boy studied the picture for a moment and then turned his attention to the stack in the other boy's hand. "What's that one?"

"Huh?" The first boy looked down and saw the shiny gold corner of his limited-edition Nyamo sticking out. Quickly he gathered the stack together and shook his head. "I'm not trading that one."

"Is that one of the limited edition ones? Which one do you have?" From the bottom of his own stack he pulled out a golden card of a shirtless Kimura sitting in an Egyptian-style throne with a dozen scantily clad women gathered around him. Down the right side of the image were the words 'First Place.'

The first boy paused and then pulled his Nyamo card from the stack. The holographic image showed Nyamo in a bikini, reclining against the hood of a Saleen S7. Like Kimura's card, there was a quote on the right side that said simply 'The New Pink.'

"Whoa," the other boy exclaimed softly and reached out his hand to touch it.

The card was quickly tucked back to the bottom of the stack. "I said I'm not trading it."

"What if I gave you my Kagura, Kimura, and my theme-version Yukari?" He searched for his Yukari card and held it up. The card portrayed Yukari from a low angle. She was dressed like Leatherface and wielding a chainsaw over her head.

Their conversation was drowned out suddenly by the roar of the surrounding crowd. Both turned their attention down to the arena where the first player of Match 1.4 had become visible. The first boy shoved his cards back into his pocket and tugged at the sleeve of his father who sat beside him.

"Let me see," he said, pointing to the binoculars around the man's neck. His father removed the binoculars and handed them over. The boy eagerly took them and lifted them to his eyes. After focusing the lenses, he smiled when he got a look at the player who now stood stretching out her calf muscles. "Hey, it's Kaorin's friend!"

Kamineko hit the 'enter' key on his laptop and relayed a new graphic profile onto the giant television.

"Chihiro," he said, "is probably the player with the least recognition. She's never gotten past the first round, and while that's pretty pathetic, you'll never read a negative review about her performance." He chuckled softly, tapping his pen against the table. "I used to blame this on bad reporting, but now I'm convinced that newspapers and magazines just don't care enough about her to spend the space for an article. I've met Chihiro myself and I gotta say that she's a pretty nice girl, but not much else. I ran into her at an award ceremony last year when she was there for Kaorin who was nominated for a Peltzer, or something about community service. Anyways, I asked her what she thought of the award and she smiled and said, and I quote, 'It's nice.' I then asked her about Kaorin and she said 'She's really nice.' I then asked her about the games and she said 'They're good.'"

He paused again, his nose wrinkling in a manner that insinuated thoughtfulness. "Was it me? I don't know. But so what if there's not a lot of substance there? She has it a lot better than some of the other players who can't make a mistake without having it become a headline. But there's always room for that to change. Hell, for all I know, this will be the series that she ends up winning. This one will be Chihiro's big breakthrough into the spotlight that the others obtain so easily. Maybe by this time next week, we'll all be reading about Chihiro's latest buys, or looking at paparazzi pictures of her taken at the beach. "

At that moment, the second player appeared on the arena. Kamineko looked at the player, and then sighed and rested his cheek to his fist. "Or not."

The crowd continued to boil over with screams, louder this time as more banners rose and multicolored streamers began to fly. On the stadium's south side, certain sections rose from their seats and waved foam hand covers in the shapes of crabs and sake bottles. A chant started small in the back rows, and then gradually spread throughout the stadium until it drowned out the sound of the other cheers. The rhythmic call of 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' could have been used for any of the players, but it was reserved for only one. The call to fight did not refer to the games, but rather an instance in which the player herself had used the word at an inappropriate time. The excitement, however, was not shared by all. Groups of Tomo fans in particular took the opportunity to boo the upcoming competition.

Kamineko smirked at the mixed responses. "Up next is the parasite who has been happily making her home in the bowels of the series for the past some-odd years. She's about as friendly as a rattlesnake, and her temper is about as calm as a Fat Man in Nagasaki (1). Cheer all you want, but you can bet that she doesn't care about your support, your fandom, or even your life. At 25 years old she hasn't aged a day past seven. Fortunately for us all, there's only one Yukari Tanizaki walking the earth today, and she's right here."

Yukari emerged on the arena dressed in a pair of boxers, a loose fitting tank top, and a pair of slippers. Her hair was a mess and she looked for all the world as though she were asleep standing up. She didn't step down from the platform when it halted.

Fans of the 'rattlesnake' cheered for her nonetheless. Those who had watched her long enough didn't necessarily love her for all that she was, but also for all that she had failed to be. She was the water that had spilled and left the glass half empty, the cone that had cracked and let the ice cream fall, the firework that had failed to ignite. She was the anticlimax of youth, a manifestation of innocence and childish tantrums that had dragged its feet for 25 years and never ultimately bloomed. The result was a twisted confusion of girl versus woman, an ever constant struggle to define the obligations of one matured.

Chihiro had been waving pleasantly to the crowd when she heard the dull 'clank' of the second platform behind her. She turned, and all at once her cheerful demeanor dissipated. Her face went white and she backed away as far as the edges of the arena would allow. The motion was noted by Yukari fans that began to jeer and taunt her for her fear, though they knew that she had every right to be afraid.

"Yukari is the second most feared fighter in the games," Kamineko supplied to his listeners. "It's never enough for her to simply finish an opponent. She derives a sadistic pleasure from the discomfort of others, especially the younger players like Chiyo. She'll do anything to get ahead, but unlike Tomo she doesn't seem to care about the recognition she receives for her stunts. It's probably for the better because most of the attention is negative. People are still debating last year's scandal when she aired photos of the more popular Minamo Kurosawa in bed with another woman. However, Yukari's attempts at soiling Minamo's name fell through when photo analysts confirmed the other woman in the photo to be her."

From a drawer in his desk he pulled out a glossy image of the famous photo that had long since had its run through the internet and into nearly every household in which the games were regularly followed. The image had obviously been taken by a hidden camera and showed Nyamo in the center of a king-sized bed. She was curled up on her side under the covers, and resting against her was another form of which only the top half of the head could be seen. The image he held had been cleaned and sharpened, and though it wasn't obvious in the original, the cleaned image showed that it was indeed Yukari sharing the bed.

Kamineko studied the image for what had to be the thousandth time. "I was there at the press conference when Yukari said simply 'It wasn't me' before running out of the room. It was the quickest conference to date that I've ever been to, and I only wish that more could be like it."

The bell sounded for the blitz round and the crowd rose in an uproar. Chihiro stood her ground, as did Yukari. Kamineko leaned back in his seat and folded his paws over his stomach. Matsuyama rolled his seat towards the front window and crossed his arms on Kamineko's desk.

"This should be interesting," the boy said.

Kamineko shook his head slowly. "I'm not so sure."

Chihiro tentatively raised her fists up. She had been fortunate in that she hadn't had to face Yukari until now, but she had heard and seen the consequences of Yukari's temper in the other players. At least Yukari didn't seem very angry right now. She didn't seem very much of anything. She hadn't even opened her eyes. Chihiro took a small step forward and then several side steps, sometimes flinching when she thought she saw Yukari move.

The seconds ticked away from the Blitz round and the audience began to stir.

"Come on!" a large man in a Tomo shirt shouted through cupped hands. His friends, also in Tomo shirts, stood up and began throwing their garbage towards the arena.

"Get her!"

"Go Chihiro!"

"What're ya waiting for?"

Similar cries came from all around the stadium and gradually became more insistent. Excitement turned to anger, anticipation to boredom, and hateful words, along with shoes, hats, bags, and random souvenirs, began to fly in Chihiro's direction.

Chihiro hunched her shoulders and looked between Yukari and the crowd, quickly wiping at her eyes. If only they knew what it was like to be standing so close to death. She wondered if any of them had ever been scared to the point of tears, or forced into doing something that they absolutely didn't want to do. She didn't know what was wrong with Yukari, but she knew already that she didn't stand a chance. Yukari lost more rounds than she won, but she never went down easy or painlessly. Yomi had lost an ear one year, and Chiyo both of her eyes. Tomo had faced her in the first round several years ago, though she had won and spent the rest of the tournament with first degree burns all over her body. Yukari's mutilation of Kimura had by far been the worst of all, so awful that Chihiro blocked the memory before it had a chance to form.

The buzzer signaled the end of the Blitz round. At the ends of the stadium there rose two separate platforms, each carrying a weapon to be used for the rest of the match.

Chihiro wiped her eyes again and glanced behind her to the closest platform. Keeping her attention on Yukari, she shuffled back to the platform and carefully crouched to pick up the presented item.

The item was what looked to be a wooden bo staff with the word 'meta' carved into the side of it. Chihiro held the staff in both hands and gave it a twirl to test its weight distribution. The crowd cheered as she did this and gradually their ill words changed into ones of encouragement.

Even with such a long weapon, Chihiro didn't feel confident in her abilities to face Yukari. She held the staff in a ready position but didn't make any move to approach her opponent. Her knuckles went white and her shoulders trembled gently.

Yukari's lips parted and she swayed lightly with a breeze that blew through the stadium.

Kamineko watched the unfolding scenario with a confused look.

"Well," he sighed at last, "this is a little different. I don't really know what to say. Yukari is normally the most violent player in the games and…hm…I guess we're gonna go ahead to commercial, but stay tuned. We'll be right back with more Death Match action." He cut the receiver and pulled his headset down around his neck. He folded his arms and looked at Matsuyama. Matsuyama looked back and shrugged.

Two hours later, Chihiro sat cross legged near the edge of the stadium, ignoring the yells and curses that were once again being directed at her. Most of the people in the audience had long since lost interest in whatever was taking place on the arena and had directed their attention to other things. Some slept, others played cards, and some had even gotten up and left.

Kamineko had his head buried in his arms on his desk. Matsuyama sat beside him, enthralled with a game of Spider Solitaire on his computer.

"So what about Eiko?" the boy asked.

Kamineko, drowsy, lifted his head. "Huh?"

"Eiko."

"What about her?"

"Do you think she likes me?"

Kamineko looked at him as one might look at a pathetic attempt at humor. "I don't even think she knows you."

"But you were there that one time at dinner, right? She sat next to me."

"And didn't look at you the entire time. Besides, she's too old for you. You're nothing but jailbait."

"Only if we got caught."

Kamineko flattened his ears back, but then sighed and looked down at the arena where he could see Eiko sitting on the sidelines with the penguin. "Trust me when I say that'll never happen. You're not her type."

Matsuyama frowned to say something, but at that moment the door opened and a white cat entered followed by what looked like a large duffle bag with two little legs.

"Sorry I'm late," the cat said and hung up his hat and coat by the door. "Traffic was a bitch."

Kamineko swiveled in his seat. "Probably because of all the people leaving," he replied, scooting his chair over to make room for the other feline.

The duffle bag that had been following the white cat lifted up to reveal a smaller white cat. The little cat tossed the bag down and then sat on top of it, grinning pleasantly.

The larger white cat climbed up into the chair beside Kamineko. "Yeah, we've been hearing about it on the radio. She still hasn't moved?"

"Not a damn bit. I'm tempted to just go down there and fight her myself."

"It would send ratings through the roof if you did."

"No," Kamineko said darkly.

"Aw, come on. It would be the comeback of a lifetime."

"Easy to say for someone who's never even been on the arena."

The white cat winced. "Ouch."

"Anyways, I haven't even-"

A sudden surge of cheers from the crowd severed his remark. Both cats perked their ears and looked down onto the school roof.

Chihiro had shot to her feet and was once again holding her staff ready. She was shifting back and forth as though she had stepped in an ant pile. Out in the audience, people rushed back to their seats and scrambled for their banners and foam hand covers. Card games were abandoned and conversations were forgotten. Kamineko could almost see the seats filling back up, and he could feel the excitement and anticipation beginning to mount once more.

Yukari had yawned and stretched her arms above her head. When her arms dropped, she opened her eyes and gazed around the stadium as casually as she would have viewed her reflection in a bathroom mirror.

Kamineko slammed his paw against the control panel to cut whatever commercial had been airing and struggled to bring his headset back up to his ears.

"And we're back!" he said, scrambling for his notes that had since been scattered. "We're back and we're here and we're fighting! Chihiro's up and ready and Yukari has finally decided to join the land of the living and soon-to-be-dying. I'm your host Kamineko, and I'm here now with my associate, Koneko."

Koneko fixed his own headset and adjusted the volume as he replied. "It's exciting to be here as always, Kami. You know, the energy we've seen here at the games this evening has been absolutely crazy."

"And it's about to get even crazier as this match finally gets under way. It looks like Yukari's finally ready, and I can't wait to see what she has in store."

"Isn't that right. With Yukari around, I don't think the games will ever lose peoples' interest."

"Especially if people are as thirsty for blood as we are."

They both laughed, though the laughter was obviously a forced cover-up of tension as they watched the unfolding scene, hoping with every ounce of their energy that Yukari would follow through with something more.

Yukari stepped down from her platform and scratched her hip. Her gaze settled on Chihiro who looked as though she might have passed out any minute.

Chihiro had stopped shifting. Her hands gripped the staff so hard that her knuckles ached and turned purple. Sweat formed along her hairline and the back of her neck, and she suddenly felt cold and empty. With any of the other players there would have been a glimmer of hope, no matter how small, that she might have stood a chance at winning. With Yukari, there was no hope. Chihiro was not only looking at death, but a slow and tortuous demise crafted by the hands of a woman who had felt a great deal of pain in her life and knew exactly what hurt the worst.

When Yukari made no further motions, the sounds of the surrounding spectators gradually dwindled down. Those who had binoculars held them fast against their eyes, and those who didn't divided their attention between the actual event and the close-up being televised on the giant screen.

Kamineko, staring through his own binoculars, was silent. Koneko leaned forward on his elbows and whispered into his headset. "Yukari's up. She's looking around."

Yukari looked at Chihiro, and Chihiro stared right back. It wasn't long before the entire stadium had fallen into silence. Hands stilled within popcorn bags, food and drink paused halfway to mouths, and inquisitive children forgot their questions. The blunt 'thunk, thunk' of the ticking clock became audible to those in the sections closest to it. High above the bleachers, a moth flew too close to one of the halogen lights and burned to a bean-sized crisp. The brittle bit descended into the bleachers where it landed in a man's cup. The man, sitting with a mouth full of unchewed hotdog, hadn't noticed. His attention, like all others in the stadium, was on Yukari and Chihiro.

Koneko felt his fur begin to prickle. He leaned further forward, almost enough to press his nose against glass of the box. Kamineko's tail twitched, and Matsuyama forgot that he had ever been playing solitaire in the first place.

Beyond the stadium, life came to a stop. On every street and sidewalk, people halted in their tracks and turned their attention to the nearest television or radio. Traffic ceased, and so did crime. In no bar was a single drink poured during this time, nor a single word spoken. In no house did a person dare move and disrupt the delicate ramification that the people themselves had built by having waited so desperately for this one moment, the moment in which Yukari made her move.

Kamineko didn't realize that he had embedded his claws into his binoculars. Koneko felt a tightness in his throat that caused his voice to crack when he attempted to iterate the scene below.

"Chihiro's…still…" he tried, but then fell silent.

Yukari took another look around the stadium before returning her gaze Chihiro. The corners of her lips turned up in a wicked little grin and she took one step forward.

Chihiro, who had since started crying again, couldn't force herself to move. She had never been frozen with fear before and she didn't know what to do to break herself out of it.

"_Think, Chihiro! Do something!"_ Her brain screamed for a response from her body. She couldn't just stand there and let Yukari do this. She knew what the audience expected, what they wanted. They wanted to hear her scream and watch her suffer. They wanted her blood all over that arena. That's what they were waiting for. Each and every single one of them was anticipating something terrible. If for a moment they thought that Yukari would do nothing more than push her around, they wouldn't have become nearly so silent. They were as afraid as she was in a way, but they were so far away from her that they couldn't possibly understand. If only they could feel what she felt.

On the sidelines, Eiko clenched her microphone against her chest. The penguin stood beside her, one flipper across her eyes and the other on Eiko's arm.

Eiko averted her gaze. Working at the games meant seeing a lot of blood and meat, but there were some things that not even she could learn to tolerate. Whatever Yukari had planned was definitely one of those things.

Suddenly Chihiro shook her head. She straightened, and with a determined yell, she stepped forward and hurled the bo at Yukari as though it were a spear. The bo landed short of Yukari by several feet, and the sound of wood against concrete was loud enough to echo up through the stadium.

Koneko shot up from his seat. "First attempt by Chihiro as she throws her weapon at Yukari! I don't know what she's thinking. Now she doesn't have anything but her hands to work with."

Yukari looked at the bo and then looked at Chihiro. She smirked.

Koneko tightened his paws against the table and Matsuyama too stood from his seat.

Chihiro was breathing hard, her arm still in post-throw position. She saw Yukari's smirk and it was more than enough to send her mind into a desperate panic. She turned and scrambled over the edge of the stadium, her body disappearing into the darkness below.

The silence in the stadium turned cold. Kamineko lowered his binoculars. He stared at the arena as though what he had just seen had been nothing but a figment of his imagination. Surely he and the rest of the world had not waited two hours for that.

Koneko blinked at the spot from which Chihiro had jumped.

"And Chihiro's gone," he whispered, still not sure if she was really gone or if there was something that he had missed.

Yukari paused and then turned and shuffled back onto her platform. She eyed the audience carefully, paying particular attention to the number of foam crabs and sake bottles, and posters baring her name. She then threw her arms up in a victorious gesture.

At once the crowd exploded into a riot of angry shouts mixed with a few cheers. The sound was deafening and the waves caused the foundation of the stadium to vibrate slightly.

Kamineko threw his headset down and crossed his arms. "I hate that bitch," he muttered.

Koneko only shook his head. "Well, ah…I wish that I could say more, but the match is over. Chihiro jumped, and Yukari won without even lifting a finger. It was amazing, but…"

"Amazing?" Kamineko spoke up, slamming his paw to the control panel again and sending them to commercial. "It was a waste is what it was!" He hopped down from his chair and went to the door to grab his coat. "I'm going out for a drink. Be back in a few."

Yukari sat down on her platform and tucked her knees to her chest. She wrapped her arms around her legs and buried her face against them so that the crowd wouldn't be able to see her satisfied little grin. She despised them, for they had broken her more times than they would ever know. They had made her feel things that no human should ever have to feel, and that she had affected them enough to make them angry was hardly bandage enough to cover her wounds, but it was a start.

* * *

(1). Bad joke. I'm going to Hell. 

**Note:** Sorry. I can't promise that I'm not a psycho.


End file.
